USB HD Policies

[Guest]

I had an extra 160gig HD that I just installed in a USB enclosure. Checking
in Hardware Devices/Policies for that drive are two choices: 1) Optimize for
quick removal, and 2) Optimize for performance. I use this drive for data
storage only. If I change the settings from quick removal to performance,
will I really gain anything? I don't have a problem in Safely Removing, as I
do it all the time.

 

[Rock]

I had an extra 160gig HD that I just installed in a USB enclosure. Checking
in Hardware Devices/Policies for that drive are two choices: 1) Optimize
for
quick removal, and 2) Optimize for performance. I use this drive for data
storage only. If I change the settings from quick removal to performance,
will I really gain anything? I don't have a problem in Safely Removing, as
I
do it all the time.

Setting for Optimize for performance turns on write caching. How much
performance gain you get will depend on what you do. Test it to find out.
It might not be noticeable. If that is set you must use the Safely remove
option otherwise removing too soon could result in data loss and possibly
data corruption.

 

[Anna]

Setting for Optimize for performance turns on write caching. How much
performance gain you get will depend on what you do. Test it to find out.
It might not be noticeable. If that is set you must use the Safely remove
option otherwise removing too soon could result in data loss and possibly
data corruption.

JustUs (& Rock):
As a matter of course we generally initially advise all our users to at set
their USB external HDD to the "Optimize for quick removal" option under the
Policies tab for that device in Device Manager > Disk drives listing.

Presumably one's USB external device is being used for one or two purposes,
i.e., storage and/or backup. Based on some tests we performed with a variety
of USB external HDDs we found no performance difference with those devices
regardless of whether the "Optimize for quick removal" option was selected
or the "Optimize for performance" option was selected. So we've opted for
(usually) for setting the option to the "...quick removal" one so that the
user ordinarily need not invoke the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon in the
notification area.

But JustUs, do this...
As we frequently recommend to users all the time...
Don't rely on my advice or anyone else's in these kinds of situations where
you can easily determine what's best for you. Try backing up substantial
amounts of data - if that's what you're about - and test the time it takes
to do so using both types of options. Determine if there's any significant
performance advantage using one or the other option.
Anna

 

[Uwe Sieber]

I had an extra 160gig HD that I just installed in a USB enclosure. Checking
in Hardware Devices/Policies for that drive are two choices: 1) Optimize for
quick removal, and 2) Optimize for performance. I use this drive for data
storage only. If I change the settings from quick removal to performance,
will I really gain anything? I don't have a problem in Safely Removing, as I
do it all the time.

If the hard drive is FAT formatted then 'Optimize for performance'
seems to increase the max cached block size from 4096 Bytes
to about 256 KBytes and activates a write cache for the accesses
to the file system.
If the hard drive is NTFS formatted then the policies are a placebo,
same thing for USB flash drives.
NTFS formatted drives always have a write cache for the file system
and for blocks up to 256..512KB (seems to depend on the drive size).
FAT formatted removable drives never have a write cache for the file
system. Only blocks smaller than 4096 Bytes are write cached.

If your drive is FAT formatted then 'Optimize for performance'
makes writing many small files faster. As long as you use the
save removal facility there is no problem.


Uwe